Helen Creese

Balinese Babad as historical sources - a reinterpretation of the fall of Gelgel

Towards the end of the seventeenth century, the centralized Balinese kingdom of G?lg?l, which according to Balinese tradition had held sway since the fourteenth century, was overthrown. It was gradually replaced in the course of the eighteenth century by a number of smaller, independent kingdoms. This period of Balinese history, which saw the end of the old political order and the beginning of a new one, has received little attention from scholars. The only detailed study of Bali in the period before 1700 has been Bergs investigation of the history of the Balinese kingdom of G?lg?l in his dissertation De Middeljavaansche Historische Traditie (1927). In his reconstruction of the rise and fall of G?lg?l, Berg made use of both Dutch and Balinese sources. However, he relied on the Balinese accounts only where no Dutch sources were available, that is, for the period before 1600. For the history of seventeenth-century G?lg?l, he accepted only those parts of the Balinese writings that could be verified in Dutch sources and dismissed any conflicting evidence from the Balinese reports as un reliable.

Judicial processes and legal authority in pre-colonial Bali

Law codes with their origins in Indic-influenced Old Javanese systems of knowledge comprise an important genre in the Balinese textual record. Written in Kawi – a term encompassing Old Javanese, Middle Javanese and High Balinese – the legal corpus forms a complex and overlapping web of indigenous legal texts and traditions that encompass the codification and administration of civil and criminal justice as well as concepts of morality and right conduct. The most significant codes include the Adhigama, Kuṭāramānawa, Pūrwādhigama, Sārasamuccaya, Swarajambu, Dewāgama (also called Krĕtopapati) and Dewadanda. Each of these law codes belongs to a shared tradition of legal thought and practice that is linked to Sanskrit Mānavadharmaśāstra traditions. Manu’s code, most notably the aṣṭadaśawyawahāra section detailing the eighteen grounds for litigation, was adopted as the model of legal textual principle in the early stages of contact between ancient India and the Indonesian archipelago. Over the course of many centuries, this model informed legal and juridical practice and was adapted and modified to suit indigenous needs. The law codes remained in use in Java until the advent of Islam towards the end of the fifteenth century, and in Bali until the colonial period in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Balinese legal textual corpus comprises dozens of interrelated manuscripts, some complete and some fragmentary. They provide significant insights in to pre-colonial judicial practices and forms of government. This article provides a survey of the corpus of legal texts and explores the nature of law in pre-colonial Bali.

Old Javanese legal traditions in pre-colonial Bali

Law codes with their origins in Indic-influenced Old Javanese systems of knowledge comprise an important genre in the Balinese textual record. Written in Kawi—a term encompassing Old Javanese, Middle Javanese and High Balinese—the legal corpus forms a complex and overlapping web of indigenous legal texts and traditions that encompass the codification and administration of civil and criminal justice as well as concepts of morality and right conduct. The most significant codes include the Adhigama, Kuṭāramānawa, Pūrwādhigama, Sārasamuccaya, Swarajambu, Dewāgama (also called Krĕtopapati) and Dewadanda. Each of these law codes belongs to a shared tradition of legal thought and practice that is linked to Sanskrit Mānavadharmaśāstra traditions. Manu’s code, most notably the aṣṭadaśawyawahāra section detailing the eighteen grounds for litigation, was adopted as the model of legal textual principle in the early stages of contact between ancient India and the Indonesian archipelago. Over the course of many centuries, this model informed legal and juridical practice and was adapted and modified to suit indigenous needs. The law codes remained in use in Java until the advent of Islam towards the end of the fifteenth century, and in Bali until the colonial period in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Balinese legal textual corpus comprises dozens of interrelated manuscripts, some complete and some fragmentary. They provide significant insights in to pre-colonial judicial practices and forms of government. This article provides a survey of the corpus of legal texts and explores the nature of law in pre-colonial Bali.

Erotic Literature in Nineteenth-Century Bali

Two nineteenth-century Balinese genres in which the erotic predominates are epic kakawin poetry and tutur (religious manuals) on sexual yoga. The article points to the strong intertextual links between these diverse genres. Through their focus on practical sexual matters and on the pursuit of sexual pleasure as integral to spiritual growth, tutur and kakawin also offer insight into notions of gender and sexuality in nineteenth-century Bali.

The legal status of widows and divorcees (janda) in colonial Bali

ABSTRACT This article explores the legal status of widows and divorced women (janda) in Bali during the transition to Dutch colonial rule at the turn of the 20th century. It examines the Balinese law codes and their application in adat (traditional) courts to consider the ways in which widows and divorcees were able to claim recognition of their economic and social rights. At that time, the Dutch established the adat law system that provided separate civil laws and courts for each ethnic group in the Netherlands Indies. Balinese traditional law codes devote considerable attention to the regulation of female sexuality both within marriage and following separation or the death of a spouse, particularly in relation to rights to property and inheritance. However, they have little to say about the dissolution of marriage. Following the imposition of Dutch colonial rule, the pre-existing Balinese traditional law codes and legal norms continued to underpin the legal process administered through the colonial customary courts but were brought into alignment with modern legal practices. The colonial administration in Bali set out systematically to provide access to the legal process for women. A number of legal cases involving widows and divorcees based on adat law precedents were recorded in the Dutch compilations of adat law cases (Adatrechtbundels). These cases relate principally to disputes between widows and the families of their former partners and indicate that the legal status of Balinese widows and divorcees was formally recognised.

MORE THAN JUST ‘NUMPANG NAMPANG’: Women's participation in interactive textual singing on Balinese radio and television

The singing and interpretation of religious and literary texts (makidung) has historically been a male dominated activity in Bali. In the last decade, however, since makidung programmes on radio and television have become popular, the participation of women in makidung activity has been substantial, with the number of female participants surpassing that of men. In this article, which forms part of a broader wide-ranging study of contemporary textual singing practices in Bali, we present some preliminary findings on the participation and motivation of women in textual singing programmes in the broadcast media. Women take part in on-air textual singing for a variety of personal, religious and social reasons. We show that, in spite of some elements of ‘self-promotion’ (numpang nampang) as participants seek to build their reputations as skilful practitioners, the participation and motivation of women in on-air interactive textual singing has been instrumental in fostering strong interest in Balis textual heritage.

Negotiating cultural constraints: strategic decision-making by widows and divorcees (janda) in contemporary Bali

ABSTRACT This article discusses the strategies deployed by widows and divorcees (janda) in negotiating cultural constraints and social stigmatisation in contemporary Bali. In Balinese patriarchal society, women are disadvantaged in terms of their access to employment and commonly earn less than men. When a marriage ends, Balinese widows and divorcees not only lose their partners but also an important source of family income. Janda may need to take on additional burdens in supporting themselves and their families and are therefore economically vulnerable. In addition, janda are often considered to be sexually available, may be the target of mens sexual advances and thus become a frequent source of gossip. The dual state-village administrative system further complicates divorce and remarriage within Balinese patriarchal society. In order to understand how Balinese janda cope with these social and cultural constraints, this article focuses on the contrasting life histories of three janda. Deploying Pierre Bourdieus concepts of economic, cultural, social and symbolic capital, the analysis demonstrates that access to multiple forms of capital plays an important role in enabling Balinese janda to make their lives bearable and manageable. With adequate access to economic resources, janda can not only demonstrate their independence and ability to support their children, but also are able to meet their social and religious obligations. In this way they can maintain their respectability and social acceptance within their local communities. These findings contribute to a wider and more complex picture of the life of Balinese janda.

From Laṅkā Eastwards; The Rāmāyaṇa in the Literature

The studies included in this volume, written by experts in a wide range of disciplines, focus on disparate aspects of the Kakawin Ramayana and the constellation of cultural phenomena revolving around it, providing the reader with a key to the understanding of the rich Old Javanese textual heritage and the transcultural intellectual dynamics that contributed to shaping the cultural heritage of Indonesia up to the present.

Old Javanese studies: a review of the field

For nearly two hundred years the academic study of the languages and liter atures of ancient Java has attracted the attention of scholars. Interest in Old Javanese had its genesis in the Orientalist traditions of early nineteenth-cen tury European scholarship. Until the end of the colonial period, the study of Old Javanese was dominated by Dutch scholars whose main interest was philology. Not surprisingly the number of researchers working in this field has never been large, but as the field has expanded from its original philo logical focus to encompass research in a variety of disciplines, it has remain ed a small but viable research area in the wider field of Indonesian studies. As a number of recent review articles have shown (Andaya and Andaya 1995; Aung-Thwin 1995; McVey 1995; Reynolds 1995), in the field of South east Asian studies as a whole, issues of modern state formation and devel opment have dominated the interest of scholars and commentators. Within this academic framework, interest in the Indonesian archipelago in the period since independence has also focused largely on issues relating to the modern Indonesian state. This focus on national concerns has not lent itself well to a rich ongoing scholarship on regional cultures, whether ancient or modern. Indeed, as Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) has developed as the national language, there has been a corresponding decline in the study of regional languages and cultures both in Indonesia itself and in the wider aca demic community. As a counterbalance, however, in the last decade there has been a recognition of the importance of earlier social, cultural and religious values for understanding contemporary culture in Southeast Asia, and a renewal of interest in the past (McVey 1995:5; Lombard 1995:11). For Indone sia, the field of Old Javanese studies has a significant role to play in this area. This review of the field of Old Javanese studies aims to draw together details of scholarly work that has been published in scattered and sometimes relatively inaccessible sources. At the dawn of a new millennium, it is useful to evaluate what has been achieved, to draw attention to work that is cur rently being undertaken in a range of complementary fields, and to point to some potential developments within this field.

Bali in the Early Nineteenth Century

In Bali in the Early Nineteenth Century Helen Creese offers an account of the earliest Dutch-Balinese encounter together with an edition of the first ethnography of the island, Pierre Dubois’ Legere Idee de Balie en 1830/Sketch of Bali in 1830 .